COMMENTARY

Mitt Romney should triple-down on Libya: Rally with Rev. Jones!

Pastor Terry Jones of Florida has become famous for his anti-Muslim rhetoric. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images )

Mitt Romney’s campaign to make the world safe for anti-Muslim hate speech breaks new ground for a presidential nominee.

But why won’t the former governor of Massachusetts take his brand of audacious truth-telling to its logical conclusion?

President Obama, or at least his State Department, is “apologizing” for the video that makes the prophet Muhammad out to be a cretinous, bed-hopping party fool — so says Romney. So why wouldn’t Romney (who has twice affirmed his critique of the administration) triple-down — with a more explicit endorsement of the talented artists who put together the 14-minute “Innocence of the Muslims.”

Jones could talk about why it’s so important to show that Muhammad has sexual designs on any warm object that isn’t bolted to the ground. And Mitt of Massachusetts could talk about why it’s so important to protect the right of Americans to don silly beards and costumes to dramatize such views.

The lawyers over at the ACLU are just aces on this sort of argument. Why not throw them into your pro-video rally, Gov. Romney? The ACLU guys have already defended the Nazis marching in Skokie, Ill., and all manner of other misguided souls who, after all, have a constitutional right to be misguided. The conservative base is bound to love this sort of appeal.

Because, as the Republican nominee already proved, there is no tragedy or delicate foreign policy dilemma that can’t be melded and recast to fit one’s hothouse worldview. There’s no way an American leader (or, more precisely, diplomatic employees working under extremely trying circumstances in a dangerous young nation) could both loathe Muslim extremists and urge Americans not to unnecessarily goad those extremists. There’s no way, in short, that diplomats can employ any measure of diplomacy. That, as Gov. Romney made clear, would send a “mixed message.”

So the Republican standard-bearer now should wholly own his position. With Pastor Jones conveniently based in Florida, Romney wouldn’t even have to stray from a battleground state to stage their joint rally. In appreciation, the God-fearing pastor would probably even throw in a Koran burning.